An adventure in the style of The Man From U.N.C.L.E, with a touch of paranormal and a healthy dose of easy sexuality, Song and Key is a fun romp through the countryside of Romania, following two secret agents on their mission to do their boss a favor. Alix Bekins and Connie Bailey partner up to write a classic secret-agents-on-a-mission book, easily read in a single afternoon.
Song and Key is a mash-up of the contemporary and paranormal, with romance and a dash of mystery to please every fan. It does take advantage of a few too many tropes, but the agents that are the book’s namesake make for a dynamic duo who fill the pages with friendly barbs as they fight for the top spot in their secret agency, the Global Law Enforcement Network (GLEN, for short). Keller Key is a cocky, self-identified pansexual with the best record in the agency. Sevastyan “Seva” Song is half-Ukranian, half-Korean, and is determined to take Key’s spot out from under him. The two are forced to partner up and head to Romania to investigate a suspicious death, and they soon become wrapped up in the local superstitions surrounding the local, ancient forest and a long-abandoned abbey. But not everything is as it seems—there are darker, more human forces afoot, even as they battle with the paranormal and their attraction to each other.
I’m a sucker for spy adventures (I own every single Mission Impossible film, and I watch them unironically), so this book was right up my alley. Add in the paranormal elements, and I’m a happy camper! Agents Key and Song are fun characters to follow as they deal with an unfamiliar setting and their heightened attraction to one another as well as dealing with locals. I had high hopes that weren’t totally fulfilled, but it was still fun to read this paranormal history and enjoy the rampant sexual tension between the two!
Keller Key is very open about his sexual prowess—there isn’t a man or woman he doesn’t try to wink at, and there are several lines that deal with his off-page success with his technique. He’s the classic secret agent playboy, with an attitude and service record to match his confidence. Key is a fun character, and his interactions with his partner only make him more interesting. Seva Song is Key’s opposite—a serious, skilled agent who wants to take Key down a peg for his own good. Song is good at what he does, and does it by the book. His one-liners are deliberately messed-up, common sayings that make Key (and readers) laugh, and his own attraction to Key is an interesting touch.
There are some issues with pacing throughout the story. The narrative doesn’t always have space to explain all the plot threads until they’re all exploding simultaneously on the pages, revealing a fake vampire and a real one, a family of werewolves with an actual pack of wolves, and starting a conflict between a good secret law-enforcement agency and an evil secret agency (with a very strange acronym). At points, character dialogue is the only connection between plot threads, which left me wondering what I had missed even as the characters attempted to tie it together in just a few lines.
The paranormal elements make for some fun. Vampires and werewolves and soul mates, oh my! But they didn’t feel perfectly assimilated into the narrative. The creatures of the night that stalk the pages feel out-of-place, even though they do add another layer to the story. And again, everything comes to a head in just a few pages, tacked on towards the end in a haphazard attempt to explain why vampires and werewolves are real and matter in the plot. It was a little confusing to reconcile the fake vampire and real wolves with the real vampire and real werewolves.
The relationship between Key and Song is something that goes from zero to one hundred because of the “paranormal” element, when something in their brains clicks and they realize they are soul mates. This seemed like a very weird trope to introduce into a story that was already struggling to incorporate its paranormal elements well. The “soul mates” trope didn’t feel like it had a proper place, and the relationship between the two would have been better if it had developed more naturally the narrative was already encouraging it, and the trope just went overboard with a very heavy-handed approach.
Overall, this is a decent contemporary mystery, that could have done without the paranormal elements, and needs a few more pages of exposition. Still, it was a fun read, and definitely fits a niche in the world of fast-paced, sexy spy novels. Warning: there is some NSFW, though it is fairly minimal and only covers a few pages (and can be skipped if need be). But if you’re looking for a queer romance involving secret agents and mysteries, Song and Key is right up your alley!
Song and Key
Written by Alix Bekins and Connie Bailey
Published December 21, 2017
